The present invention relates to proteinaceous food products resembling, for example, American process cheese and methods for producing these products from plant-derived protein. Because the primary ingredients of natural process cheese are animal in origin, the protein product according to the present invention is referred to herein as "simulated cheese".
Depending on the amount of protein, food products formulated according to the present invention are useful edibly as, for example, spreads, foods or cheeses. As compared with natural process cheese, the products according to the present invention are economical, nutritious, have comparable food value, may be prepared without salt for persons on salt-free diets, may be prepared with vegetable oil instead of animal fats to accommodate persons on low-cholesterol diets, and may be mass-produced for institutional purposes.
The protein from which formulations according to the present invention may be made is derived from soy beans. Heretofore, soy protein has been very difficult to process into an acceptable simulated cheese product comparable to, for example, American cheese, because American cheese is possessed of numerous physical characteristics that are extremely difficult to reproduce in a simulated cheese. For example, important characteristics include gel strength, melting properties, appearance such as smoothness, shininess and translucence, mouth-feel such as smoothness, chewiness and creaminess, texture such as coarseness and grain, mushiness such as yield upon being squeezed, elasticity, stickiness, homogeneity and emulsification. Perhaps the most important of the foregoing characteristics are melt, mouth-feel and mushiness. It will be recognized, of course, that many of the characteristics are highly subjective for evaluation purposes. Notwithstanding the matter of subjectivity, the protein food product of the present invention very closely simulates natural process cheese such as American cheese.